Adoption Stories

When you have a family, you can take it for granted. That will never be the case for Maci Kean. Adopted just 51 days before her 18th birthday she told the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption that she “never thought she’d feel love.”

“We knew during our first meeting with them that we needed them as much as they needed us,” said Wendy and Joseph Garren about the day they met their four children, Morgan, Logan, Trevor and Tiffany.

It was a sad time. My wife and I had tried to add to our family without success. It wasn’t an immediate decision, but we eventually decided to pursue adoption. From that moment, everything in our life changed.

It all started with the “most epic and memorable game of UNO every played.” That’s when Jacquelynn and Kevin Patterson knew they had met their daughter, Haylee. And Haylee knew she had met her parents. “It feels great to be wanted and to be home.” Join our Circle of Support to ensure more teenagers, like Haylee, are adopted into supportive, safe and loving

This was shared with the Dave Thomas Foundation by Jesus Paniagua. Jesus was 7 years old when he and his five brothers were adopted by Yolonda, a single mother who made them finally feel at home. Today Jesus is 27 and honoring his late mother by sharing his story.

Sometimes when a family opens their heart to a child in foster care, they realize there is still more love to give. That’s what happened to the Holbrooks!

We first learned about our daughter, Fatima, in the autumn of 2015. We had been in the search process for more than a year and we were becoming very discouraged. We often heard we lived too far away for family visits and/or caseworker visits. When we received Fatima’s profile, we learned that there was more to her situation than the profile could convey and that she was considered a case that required “special consideration.”

Ty came to the Vogt family as a toddler. A few months later, his baby sister Mya joined him. The Vogt family knew they wanted to keep the siblings together. After 743 and 570 days in foster care, they were both adopted!

Maci was adopted just 51 days before turning 18. Her family is now the support system she always wanted. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption believes all children, regardless of age, deserve a permanent family.

In the early spring of 2013, as our three seventh graders were working quietly on their schoolwork, I took a break from my work to flip through Facebook. I was compelled to click on a link to the AdoptUSKids.org website, and soon I was scrolling through a list of children eligible for adoption through foster care. I looked around me at the huge house we had been blessed with and was overcome by the knowledge that we had it within our power to do more than we were currently doing. I paused on the profile of a sibling group and thought…with just a few tweaks we could adopt again. All we would need is a larger vehicle and a couple sets of bunk beds. It was totally doable. My girls noticed that I was teary and sniffing and they asked me what was wrong. I said, “What would you think about adopt